Ubuntu Manpage: cdist-bootstrap - setup cdist environment

name
introduction
location
setup working directory and branch
publishing the configuration
updating from origin
see also
copying
author

NAME

       cdist-bootstrap - setup cdist environment

INTRODUCTION

       This document describes the usual steps recommended for a new cdist setup. It is recommended that you
       have read and understood cdist-quickstart(7) before digging into this.

LOCATION

       First of all, you should think about where to store your configuration database and who will be accessing
       or changing it. Secondly you have to think about where to configure your hosts from, which may be a
       different location.

       For starters, having cdist (which includes the configuration database) on your notebook should be fine.
       Additionally an external copy of the git repository the configuration relies on is recommended, for use
       as backup as well as to allow easy collaboration with others.

       For more sophisticated setups developing cdist configurations with multiple people, have a look at
       cdist-best-practice(7).

SETUP WORKING DIRECTORY AND BRANCH

I assume you have a fresh copy of the cdist tree in ~/cdist, cloned from one of the official urls (see
cdist-quickstart(7) if you don’t). Entering the command "git branch" should show you "* master", which
indicates you are on the master branch.

The master branch reflects the latest development of cdist. As this is the development branch, it may or
may not work. There are also version branches available, which are kept in a stable state. Let’s use git
branch -r to list all branches:

cdist% git branch -r
origin/1.0
origin/1.1
origin/1.2
origin/1.3
origin/1.4
origin/1.5
origin/1.6
origin/1.7
origin/2.0
origin/HEAD -> origin/master
origin/archive_shell_function_approach
origin/master

So 2.0 is the latest version branch in this example. All versions (2.0.x) within one version branch (2.0)
are compatible to each other and won’t break your configuration when updating.

It’s up to you to decide which branch you want to base your own work on: master contains more recent
changes, newer types, but may also break. The version branches are stable, but may lack the latest
features. Your decision can be changed later on, but may result in merge conflicts, which you will need
to solve.

Let’s assume you want latest stuff and select the master branch as base for your own work. Now it’s time
to create your branch, which contains your local changes. I usually name it by the company/area I am
working for: ethz-systems, localch, customerX, ... But this is pretty much up to you.

In this tutorial I use the branch mycompany:

cdist% git checkout -b mycompany origin/master
Branch mycompany set up to track remote branch master from origin.
Switched to a new branch 'mycompany'
cdist-user% git branch
master
* mycompany

From now on, you can use git as usual to commit your changes in your own branch.

PUBLISHING THE CONFIGURATION

       Usually a development machine like a notebook should be considered temporary only. For this reason and to
       enable shareability, the configuration should be published to another device as early as possible. The
       following example shows how to publish the configuration to another host that is reachable via ssh and
       has git installed:

           # Create bare git repository on the host named "loch"
           cdist% ssh loch "GIT_DIR=/home/nutzer/cdist git init"
           Initialized empty Git repository in /home/nutzer/cdist/

           # Add remote git repo to git config
           cdist% git remote add loch loch:/home/nutzer/cdist

           # Configure the mycompany branch to push to loch
           cdist% git config branch.mycompany.remote loch

           # Configure mycompany branch to push into remote master branch
           cdist% git config branch.mycompany.merge refs/heads/master

           # Push mycompany branch to remote branch master initially
           cdist% git push loch mycompany:refs/heads/master

       Now you have setup the git repository to synchronise the mycompany branch with the master branch on the
       host loch. Thus you can commit as usual in your branch and push out changes by entering git push.

UPDATING FROM ORIGIN

       Whenever you want to update your cdist installation, you can use git to do so:

           # Update git repository with latest changes from origin
           cdist% git fetch origin

           # Update current branch with master branch from origin
           cdist% git merge origin/master

           # Alternative: Update current branch with 2.0 branch from origin
           cdist% git merge origin/2.0

COPYING

       Copyright (C) 2012 Nico Schottelius. Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU
       General Public License version 3 (GPLv3).

AUTHOR

       Nico Schottelius <nico-cdist--@--schottelius.org>
           Author.

                                                   04/07/2016                                 CDIST-BOOTSTRAP(7)